An Essay by Ginger Kathrens
From our very good friends at The Cloud Foundation
Photo by Carol Walker
He was wild and free, roaming the vast expanses of the rugged Calico Mountains with his mother and father and the other members of his family. This would be his first winter, a time when life slowed down for all the wild ones—the elegant pronghorn he watched on the distant horizon, the tiny pygmy rabbits that foraged in the sage brush undergrowth and darted into their dens when he tried to touch them, the fat sage grouse that were some of his favorites.
When he was just days old, he heard their strange, booming sounds and saw the males strutting and displaying for a mate. When he wandered toward them, it was his father who gently guided him home. His mother softly nickered to him. She smelled of sweet sage and invited him to nurse.
Then, one day while his mother and father and the others in his family were quietly foraging, conserving their energy in the growing cold, he saw his father jerk his head up. Ears forward, the stallion watched and listened and the colt did too, mimicking his father. The colt could hear a rumbling drone. In the distance, he could see something flying toward them. It was even bigger than the majestic golden eagles that soared over his home. It came closer and closer, dropping low over the sage. The drone grew into an ear shattering roar. His family began to run and he followed, galloping beside his mother where he would be safe. Mile after mile the menacing, giant bird chased them. His legs ached and he wanted to rest, but he could not leave his mother. He kept running, struggling to keep up. Fear gripped the Calico colt.
Then he saw a horse in front of his father and it too began to run. Safety must be ahead. His family followed the stranger and suddenly they were trapped inside walls of steel. His father tried to jump over the wall but it was too high. There were two legged animals running at them with long sticks and something white that fluttered madly. Suddenly, he was separated from his mother when a two-legged moved between them, striking out at him with the frightening stick and the fluttering bag. He was driven into another corral. When he whinnied for his mother, she answered. He raced around the corral calling for her, but found his feet were too sore to run anymore and he stopped. He could hear his father calling and he knew the proud stallion had been separated too. The colt answered him. He could see his mother through the bars of his cage and this gave him strength and hope.
Days passed. It was cold and there was no place to get out of the wind. In his home, his mother would have led the band below a rocky outcrop that blocked the wind. The colt began to fear he would never again smell the sweet sage of her breath or taste the warm milk she offered to him. His feet, so sore, became worse. Shooting pains darted through his whole body when he tried to walk so he moved as little as possible, hobbling a few steps to eat the plants the two-leggeds had thrown on the ground for them. One frigid morning, the two leggeds came and drove him into a truck with others that were his age. The pain was constant now and when the truck moved out, he stayed on his feet but the pain riveted him with every jolt and bump. He called for his mother, but there was no answer. Would he ever see his parents again? Hours passed and the truck moved onto smoother ground and it turned into a place where he could hear the calls of his kind. He whinnied as loud as he could, but the answering voices were unfamiliar. The two-leggeds drove the colt from the truck into a bigger cage and he struggled to keep up with the other foals. Some of them were limping too. His eyes scanned the horizon, looking for something familiar but the flat horizon looked nothing like the land of his birth.
Days went by and he spent hours laying in the dirt, the pain growing. He could feel something happening to his feet. His once strong, dark hooves were beginning to separate from the bone designed to hold them fast. He laid flat and closed his eyes, imagining the home and family he feared he would never see again. The two leggeds walked toward him. He wanted to jump up and dash away but he could not. Over the next few days he grew too tired to move at all. The wind howled and as it began to snow, he closed his eyes for the last time and dreamed of his family. Then two leggeds came again and killed the Calico Colt.
In death, the lively spirit of the Calico Colt was released to roam free once more. He has
returned home to his family and the land of his dreams. He is not just a statistic. Neither
he nor what he symbolizes will ever be forgotten.
(Ginger Kathrens is a filmmaker, author, and founder of The Cloud Foundation, dedicated to preserving our mustangs on public lands. The Foundation is calling for a stop to the roundups that are robbing public lands of our legendary, native wild equids—the very embodiment of freedom for many Americans. The Calico colt is only one of many who have died as a result of the ongoing roundups this year alone. Find out what you can do at www.thecloudfoundation.org)
Photo: Living Images by Carol Walker
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Categories: The Force of the Horse, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Thank you for sharing the tragic and unnecessary loss of yet another victim of the mustang gestapo – written in the eyes of the horse, expressing the depth of suffering and fears he must have lived thru – only certain folks can comprehend and relate – are willing to see it in their perspective… which is pure hell – please share this and tell the colt’s story – his death must not be in vain – I hope he’s in a better place – we will keep fighting, no matter what it takes.
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Jeez….please pass the tissues.
THIS is why we are fighting.
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Thank you RT, appreciate you posting this.
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This is cruelty to animals and these “two legs” up to the top level should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Working for the government does NOT allow anyone to commit a criminal act. These savages can be prosecuted. The employees have the right to refuse an illegal order.
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This colt will never be forgotten. The BLM continues to violate the Nevada statutes on animal cruelty. An individual would be charged for cruelty in a case like this. Google “Nevada animal cruelty statutes” to see the actual statute numbers and how it looks in legal language.
Thank you for reminding, in a way that so few could, that every single horse is part of a family and had life stolen from them…and from us.
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When are they ever going to get some two leggeds that know something about horses. This stuff does not have to happen. Heck even I could figure out how to round them up better than this. It might take longer, not be in winter and it might even cost less than what they spend but I would be damned sure horses would not have their feet run off or be found dead in pens. What is wrong with these people? They should be sending the BLM to Iraq since they know how to kill so well because they sure are not suited to be doing anything with horses.
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There will always be those who do their job for money regardless of how cruel. We the people never have any power to change anything that interrupts the power of greed. To try to stop irrational behavior when it’s making money is frustrating, but what else can we do but try to make public aware of what is happening? Unfortunately the public has become apathetic to everything but making money so the circle is closed. At some point with the pending budget cuts the horses in pens will have to pay the ultimate price, but before that happens I propose we establish a fund, buy them all and turn them back loose.
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I understand the frustration, but the solution is called civil disobedience and boycotts. How to do that for animals and the global nature of economies is tough to do. But it can been done.
Civility and morality are not issues that are won overnight….sometimes it takes centuries. The internet helps.
Everyone, hang in there and never, ever give up.
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Forgot to add that ejudication is also a main tool of change.
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Thank you, D. We will have to learn more lessons to do this but I think it can be done. mar
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Frank, I hope what you propose at the end of your post is something that Ms. Pickens is already working on.
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I sure wish the whole public was aware of what is happening on these roundups. If I wasn’t a horse person and didn’t keep up on the horse world I wouldn’t know anything about this issue. Maybe world news tonight should do a story on this. They did one on the cruelty to Milking cows. But that would be an individual causing these issues, not a government program which can be kept hush – hush!. They candy coat everything about the BLM.
That poor foal died for nothing!
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I think the mandate to the BLM is to sell at auction the mustangs removed from our lands. To this end the BLM is spending $100,000 per day of our money and is claiming it needs more funding, not likely in this economy. The reality is that the captured horses at some point will face slaughter but the government would feel the outcry of that. The only solution would be to have an agency mandated to protect the horses that isn’t the same agency that manages public land. That agencies mandate would set enough lands aside so nature culls the herd at viable levels of 50,000 or so regardless of special interests. It has taken 500 years for our Mustangs to become what they are, once gone they will never come back.
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I’ve always believed that the BLM should not be the managers of the mustangs and burros. Frankly, I don’t believe they need to exist in the first place given their inception history….they are OBE.
Revamp…now!
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I reaq this first thing this morning and it saddened me so much that I havent been able to respond to it, still am not ready really … I just keep seeing that poor baby. I am a photographer and have spent hours just sitting out in our pastures watching my foals play and the interaction and family units (and I dont own mustangs, my only rescue is a mare from a North Dakota PMU farm) and I know how it makes my spirit soar just watching them. I have gelded both my stallions and retired all my brood mares and they will be with me until I die if they dont go before me. I still enjoy sitting watching the adult horses interact. I could not even imagine seeing that baby and its suffering and that is exactly what those people did, sat and watched it and made it suffer until they thought they should “put it out of its pain”. One good thing is that it keeps on fuelling my determination to make these people pay for what they are doing.
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To say I am outraged is an understatement. Publicity is the only way to ensure national attention. The President spoke the other night of vetoing government expense. The time is now. We must raise money to launch national media attention in order to shine the spotlight on the the cruelty of the BLM. This beautiful colt will not have died in vien. So help me God!!!
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Dawn, contact anyone you can think of.. I wrote to everyone under the sun, never to hear back from none but a few… the national broadcasters are mostly ignoring this, I wish National Geographic would do a publication on this, where are they ? I have written to them so many times – it is disturbing to experience the apathy and indifference amongst some major outlets, seems they are all government “controlled” by not airing the very truth – organize a protest, hand out flyers with links for people to look up – get kids involved – it will spread the word at least. Most people do not know.
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I have written politicians about the Socialized Health Care Bill. Most of them don’t give a damn what the people think. If they don’t give a damn about our opinions on Health Care, obviously they will not listen to us about horses or anything else. The only way to speak is in the next election, but by then it will be too late for the horses. We killed the buffalo almost to extinction, now the horses; which makes one wonder how long it will be before President Obama starts getting rid of people. It is already part of the Health Care Bill.
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